Money first, Children second

We enrolled our son at this centre because, during our initial visits, the staff convinced us that it was a place where a child's educational progression is valued. What we have experienced instead is a centre willing to compromise Montessori principles and a child's well-being in order to squeeze the most children into a limited space.

A month before our son turned two, his best friend moved to the toddler room. She had just turned two. We remember it vividly because her mother was appalled that they did it without even telling her. She had never met the adults responsible for her child. I spoke to management in February about this to try to avoid the same situation. I was told that he would be moving very soon.

I followed up with them at drop-off time for two months. During that time, I watched him change from happily running away from me shouting "goodbye" to asking me to take him home. He even asked me to take him to the toddler room myself one morning. Management just kept telling me that there was no space, but that it would be available soon.

By May, I started to worry that he might be waiting a very long time. When I raised this, the manager admitted that our son could remain in the infant room until he was three or older if no current toddler left. In other words, there was no real plan for his progression at all.

That is hard to square with Montessori in anything but the most superficial branding sense. Montessori is built around the idea that children develop through appropriately prepared environments and through life with their peers. Mixed-age communities are not supposed to be an administrative afterthought. They are part of the method. A child should not be kept in the wrong room simply because it is operationally convenient for the centre.

Maria Montessori herself said, "The greatest development occurs from birth to three years." What kind of three-year-old do you have if they spend the last year of their life with four-month-old babies?

The most disappointing part is that the centre admitted it took new enrolments for the toddler room shortly before our boy turned two. That says a lot. If the centre knew he was approaching the normal transition age and still filled toddler spaces with new families, then the message to us was clear: we were treated as a bird in the hand. They already had our enrolment, our fees, and our commitment, so they could use his place to add a new client who otherwise would not join.

My impression is that the Montessori language here is mostly a facade. The branding is strong, but the priority of the organisation is clear: eke out the most profit from a limited space. We were lied to.

This organisation takes advantage of children and the lovely educators that work there.

"To segregate by age is one of the cruellest and most inhuman things one can do." - Maria Montessori